This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. Section 119 from an application for xe2x80x9cMobile Communication System for Home-Zone Service and Method Thereofxe2x80x9d filed earlier in the Korean Industrial Property Office on Nov. 26, 1998 and there duly assigned Serial No. 98-51062.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a mobile communication system and method for providing home zone service in a wireless communication network, and in particular, to a system and method for a communication service provider to easily determine whether a wireless communication subscriber with a single terminal is within the home zone service in order to charge the subscriber at a first charge rate for the call inside the home zone service, and to charge at a second charge rate which is higher than the first charge rate, if the subscriber is located outside the home zone service.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the demand for mobile radio communication services has increased, the number of subscribers has grown exponentially. The mobile communication service providers are putting their efforts to attracting wired mobile subscribers from the competing service providers. A wired network was built a long time ago while the emerging wireless service providers were providing their services on a different network. Wired communications and wireless communications are different in many respects. The former is considered to be much more superior to the latter system the voice quality and the cost but is available only in a confined area such as inside a house or a building. As the integrated wireless and wireline communication service is not possible in the real world, these two communication networks continue to operate independently. In other words, a subscriber has to purchase a mobile telephone in addition to the telephone unit in the house to benefit from the wireless communication service. Accordingly, it is inefficient and inconvenient for a subscriber to purchase two different telephone units and have two different phone numbers due to the diverse network systems.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional network configuration with a wired service provider and a wireless service provider providing a communication service with two different networks. Within the cellular zone 40, the coverage area of a base station 60, a subscriber has a first telephone 10 for use inside the house and a second telephone 50 for use outside the house. A wireline service is provided through a cable extending from a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) 30 via the first telephone 10 installed within the house. A wireless service is provided through the second telephone 50 that transmits/receives communication signals to/from the base station 60 within the cellular zone 40. The reference numeral 70 denotes a mobile exchange (or mobile switching center (MSC)) and the reference numeral 80 denotes a communication line between the base station 60 and the mobile exchange 70. The communication line can be achieved by an E1 or T1 link. The reference numeral 90 denotes a communication line between the mobile exchange 70 and the PSTN 30 to form a communication path between the wireless subscriber and the wired subscriber.
FIG. 2 illustrates a fixed cellular network configuration showing a cellular network for use in a confined area, such as an island, where a cable cannot be installed to provide a wired service. A stationery radio telephone 55 equipped with a wireless telephone is fixed in the house located in island and exchanges communication signals with the base station 60 in a main land. A mobile radio telephone 45 transmits/receives communication signals via the fixed radio telephone; thus, the mobile radio telephone 45 only has a limited communication area around the vicinity of the house. A dotted line indicated by the reference numeral represents the communication area 65 for the fixed radio telephone 55, in which the mobile radio telephone 45 can communicate with the outside. This communication area 65 can range from hundreds of meters to a few kilometers and also be referred as a home zone area.
Although the fixed cellular communication scheme as stated above can be considered a wireless service, it has limited mobility and coverage area. However, the call charge inside the home zone is relatively lower than the call charge outside the home zone, which is the reason why many subscribers keep both the wireless service and the wired service at home. In view of such foregoing scenario, a wireless service provider can attract other wired subscribers to use the wireless service by charging their subscribers less for the calls within the home zone that is equivalent to the wired service. Therefore, a wireless subscriber can use one mobile terminal unit for both the home zone calls and the outside a home zone calls and still have the benefit of having a lower charge rate for the home zone calls, as they did through the wired service.
FIG. 3 is a view illustrating a conventional home zone over a network and its graphical illustration for detecting the location of a subscriber in relation to the home zone area over the wireless network. The base stations 61, 63, 64, 67, and 69 surrounding a particular subscriber are used to detect the boundary of the home zone. The reference numerals 71, 73, 74, 77, and 79 denote the respective coverage areas of the base stations 61, 63, 64, 67, and 69. The home zone 81 is marked with a circle. Within the home zone 80, a signal can be received from any one of the base stations 61, 63, 64, 67, and 69. In other words, all the base stations 61, 63, 64, 67, and 69 can receive signals from the telephones 10, 50, and 55, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. The home zone 81 cannot be as small as that of are covering the house in FIG. 1 or the communication area 65, which ranges from about 20 m to about 30 m from the center of a house in FIG. 2.
In the prior art as described above, three to eight base stations are constantly monitoring the location of the terminal at all times and notify the detected terminal location to a mobile exchange, which increases the load on the wireless network. Moreover, a subscriber cannot receive both the wired and wireless communication services using a single terminal, and an efficient billing service is not provided for an integrated wired and wireless communication service from a mobile communication service provider.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a mobile communication system and method for providing home zone service in a wireless communication network, wherein a wireless subscriber using a single terminal is charged for the call inside a home zone at a first charge rate and the call outside the home zone at a second charge rate.
The above object is achieved by providing a mobile communication system, which includes a home zone signal generator for generating a home zone signal; a mobile radio terminal for receiving the home zone signal and for determining whether the mobile radio terminal is currently within the home zone based on the strength of the home zone signal; and, a base station for communicating with the mobile radio terminal. Accordingly, a visitor location register temporarily stores the first and the second telephone numbers of a subscriber, for which different charge rates are applied. A mobile exchange receives the call information, a mobile identification number, and the home zone in/out information from the base station and selects the first or the second telephone number of the subscriber that corresponds to the mobile identification number by referring to the visitor location register according to the home zone in/out information. A billing center receives the call information and the first and the second telephone numbers from the mobile exchange and provides billing for the call corresponding to the selected telephone number.